As the title suggests, the following is our birth story. If this sort of thing makes you squeamish, then please look through the older posts, such as these or these, instead.

My waters 'broke' around 5:00am on Sunday 19th. When I say broke, I don't mean a gush of water like you see in the movies, more like a slow leak you can't control. At this point I was completely unprepared for a trip to the hospital. I'd packed a few things for Luella (Lulu) but nothing for me. The Pjs I wanted to wear in hospital weren't even washed, so rather than a phone call to the midwife being my high priority, I put on a load of washing and went back to bed, until I was certain that my waters had broken.

I woke Nick just after 6 and we it was then that I rang the midwife. The midwife suggested coming in to get checked out. We showered, gathered our things, woke my mum, who was staying with us for the baby shower week, with instructions about washing, etc. and left for the hospital.

Getting checked out Sunday morning

At the hospital the midwife timed the contractions and listened the baby's heart rate. Contractions were every 8 minutes but so weak I couldn't feel them so we were given the option of staying in hospital or returning home (more like going into town for breakfast & then attend the baby shower my mother-in-law was throwing that afternoon). We chose home. Instructions were given to come back when the contractions were stronger or at 6am on Monday 20th to receive an antibiotic, as by then the waters would have been broken for more than 24 hours and chance of infection is high.

It was nice to have this little warning period. While in town for breakfast we were able to stock up on essentials we hadn't yet purchased and then go home & pack our bag properly. The second baby shower was lovely. More traditional, but no games.

At the second baby shower, sweaty & in labour

We arrived home for a nap just after 8pm but between 8:30 and 9:00 the contractions were 3 minutes apart. I called the hospital and they said it was up to us, we could come in or stay at home. Since it was our first I thought it best to come in.

As soon as we got to the hospital the contractions slowed down, but we were right to go in earlier, mainly because it was a busy night & by 1:00am all the birthing suites were full! By 12:00am I'd had a IV line put in my hand incorrectly, pinching a nerve. It was supposed to deliver the antibiotic but instead delivered shooting pain (worse than the labour pains!). The doctor had to come & put it in my left hand. Not long after the antibiotics had been administered, the labour pains were so bad I asked for morphine. The morphine allowed me to be able to sleep between contractions & Nick to be able to have three hours sleep.

Shift change at 8:00am bought back our lovely midwives from the day before and the midwife suggested that I have a syntocinon injection to speed up the contractions. I agreed as long as it was accompanied by more morphine. At level 1 the contractions were strong enough and frequent enough not to need to increase the dosage. As the morphine wore off the other midwife suggested I try the gas. Considering I don't do drugs in real life, I figured this was the one time to go for it all, so I tried the gas. The first time made me throw up but the midwife said to try again and the second time was much better. After a while the gas didn't really seem to help, but it gave me something to focus on.

By midday it was time to start start pushing, though in the beginning the midwife told me not to so we could stretch things a little bit & minimise tearing. I was fairly tired by then & did not really have enough energy to push, so the pushing phase lasted much longer than everyone thought it would. She finally arrived at 2:10pm. Nick caught her as she came out & he cut the cord.

First time with me

Hanging with her dad

Weigh in with the midwife

While the weigh in was happening, I was being 'stitched up', which meant a return of the gas. This time it worked fabulously. Sucking the gas made a rhythmic rattling sound that reminded me of Flaming Lips songs, so I asked Nick to play their music on the ipad. He put on 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' & I spent, what should have been a harrowing time, a little out of it, transfixed by the music & the gas. They should really make the gas available at all Flaming Lips concerts. Nick was so stoked that Lulu's first album was the Flaming Lips.

We are so blessed that everything went well & we now have this precious little girl.